Defining the modern-day military epic...

Rating: Null/10 (5 May 2002)

**Possible spoilers ahead, though we all know how the story eventually ends (having read the book)WWII, that is.**
Those who dismiss this film in the wake of "Saving Private Ryan" are missing the point. Yes, "Ryan" was a powerful piece of film- making, but "The Longest Day" has a far more epic scope and concerns itself with providing a more complete picture by telling the stories surrounding D-Day from the perspective of British and American troops, French troops, German troops, and French resistance fighters and civilians. Continual involvement of the higher command officers, particularly among the Germans, helps give the viewer a sense of the 'big picture' that was probably unknown to most on the ground involved in fighting.
This blending of the strategic picture and vignettes from individual soldiers -- many of them underscoring alternately the horror, the futility, and the absurdness of war -- was a prominent feature of Cornelius Ryan's book upon which his screenplay is based. The same is true of the 1977 classic, "A Bridge Too Far." And, yes, those more quirky scenes depicted in the film did apparently happen in real life, truth being far stranger than fiction could ever hope to be and war being sprinkled with absurdities of all flavors.
Attesting to the veracity of this film is not only the fact that Ryan was responsible for its screenplay but that among the military advisors were a host of generals and other officers from German and Allied forces, most of them depicted in the film. And some of those depictions were spot-on, in that the actors chosen naturally looked like or made themselves look like the historical figures (for example, the fellow who played Eisenhower looked more like the Allied commander than Ike himself did!). The core story of "Private Ryan" is fiction; the totality of "The Longest Day" is fact.
Another difference between the two films is that many of the battle scenes in the 1962 movie were dominated by long-shots whereas the newer movie kept things tight and far more up close and personal. This difference reflects the difference in the films' scopes: big-picture versus small; divisional action and objectives versus platoon-based action and objectives. On the subject of long shots, some of the sweeping tracking shots (especially of the French commando raid, but also of the assault on Omaha Beach and in a few other scenes) in this film were pretty incredible.
"The Longest Day" shares another essential similarity with the later "A Bridge Too Far" in that both feature the proverbial 'all-star cast.' I'm not sure that similar assemblages of talent and 'big names' have been cast for the same project since "A Bridge Too Far." Although it can be a tad disconcerting to see a famous actor occupy a tiny chunk of screen time, apparently underutilized, the approach does get across the idea of the sum being greater than any of the parts.
As for charges that "The Longest Day" was a pro-war filmI don't know where that comes from. And that's even WITH John Wayne being among the cast! The fact is that camaraderie and certain positive aspects of human character become magnified during war just as the more negative aspects do, and elation over triumphing over adversity is not something that should surprise viewers who might wonder why some of the soldiers appear happy at times. Also, bear in mind that many of the troops were relatively inexperienced in battle and that they were embarked upon the 'greatest adventure of them all,' finally delivering the enslaved nations of Europe from the grasp of tyranny (etc, etc).
Heroism is real, too, no matter what motivates it. Moreover, the inherent waste and tragedy of war was -- despite relying less on overt gore than is now the custom -- a current that ran through the entire film, perhaps being most obvious in such scenes as those concerned with the accidental dropping of members of the 82nd Airborne Division in Sainte Mere-Eglise and the US Rangers' incredible (and ultimately pointless) scaling of the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc. I was surprised, when I saw "Private Ryan," that Steven Spielberg had included a scene that showed American soldiers killing prisoners. I'd forgotten that a similar incident was included in "The Longest Day" (the GI responsible mused about what "bitte, bitte" meant, but surely he knew what arms raised in surrender meant). It's to the film-makers' credit that the German cast are (in addition to being allowed to speak German) portrayed as real human beings, with emotions, concerns, and real problems with those who command them.
In summary, this film is far from supplanted by "Saving Private Ryan." The Spielberg film is an incredible one, and worthy of the accolades accorded it, but its existence does not relegate "The Longest Day" to the scrap heap. The two films complement one another and together provide a remarkably full picture of what happened in Normandy almost 60 years ago.